too much

"I seriously don't enjoy spending a whole day at the office with our boss. There's just too much pressure, too much stress," my office-mate exclaimed as we got out of the little green gate and walked towards the main street late in the afternoon.

Welcome to my world

It's quite often that I find myself alone, with my boss. And pressure is an understatement to the ambiance he develops whenever he's there. With a day-at-a-time strategy to keep the business going, our boss has a tendency to make me do things that just suddenly popped out of his head. This, of course, sidetracks to the real work I was paid to do.

And so, my job description is not just editing but slash slash.

Lately, it's been difficult. Hopefully, it does not get worse, though.

work blooper

My boss asked me to follow up on certain malls regarding our proposal to be able to sell the magazine at their place. I started calling their offices Tuesday and never got a hold on any of them. I tried calling Music Museum this afternoon and have I made a major blooper!

Imagine a small room with tables at every corner. At the rightmost corner of the room is where all the printers and telephones are. The table right next to this is my boss', who was at that moment writing emails to practically everyone there is in his address book.

I went to the phone and dialed the number. Somebody answered.

"Hello? Is Ms. Soriano there?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Martha, from BusinessWorld-"

My boss stared at me.

three drops of tears

It was midday and I was at work. Though I know there is so much that needs to be done, it wasn't as immediate as the term "now" would imply. Besides, procrastination is a stage we all enjoy, especially when you have tons of work.

Seeing myself at that stage, I looked for a friend to talk to. One friend, online in Facebook, sent me a message. This was the distraction I needed. We talked about a lot of things that afternoon.

Of course, there were times my boss would give me instructions and thoughts on the issues the magazine has to cover. Just as he was about to leave, he wanted me to forward all the emails I sent to possible contributors. This is aside from the tag line for the magazine he wanted me to think of, and the blog posts and updates of vendors, activities and what else is there that he wanted me to upload. Obviously, I have not done a single one of them. Maybe he realized I wasn't doing anything work-related, I thought to myself.

I looked back at my computer to see if my friend had written any message right after my boss gave his talk.

And there I read my friend's message: "He left."

I knew he was leaving. God has been telling me for the past year that this will be happening, and I guess I should have been expectant of such a message. Besides, he himself told me he was, that is, four months ago.

Actually, it was the only thing he told me regarding this trip he is having. I must admit, I tried to dig a little deeper, but I guess I'm not as skilled as I thought I'd be. Without having any idea of what is to happen next, that is aside from his leaving, it only made me feel that I should be more than the unresponded messages.

"He left."

I left the room in fear of a public display of whatever reaction I was going to have. I rushed towards the comfort room to have more privacy and started to call God. I went down on my knees to hear what He was to say. And there were tear drops.

One.

Two.

Three.

I stood up, checking myself in the mirror if the drops had made a smudge of my make-up. There were so much to do, writers to contact, blog posts to write. I looked at myself in the mirror once more and smiled. If I were the unresponded messages, you mean nothing more than just three drops of tears, easily wiped out and barely noticed.